UAE liquid waste contract goes to Energy Solutions

US nuclear services company Energy Solutions has been awarded a contract to design and supply liquid waste management systems for the United Arab Emirates' (UAE's) nuclear energy program.

How the UAE's first nuclear power plant at Braka could look (Image: Enec)

Under the contract, Energy Solutions will provide liquid waste processing equipment for the country's first nuclear power plant, planned to be sited at Braka. The multi-stage process - involving micro- and ultra-filtration to remove particles and reverse osmosis to remove dissolved solids - will reduce liquid effluents to below the 18.5 becquerels per litre limit set by UAE authorities.

An Energy Solutions spokesman told World Nuclear News that design work on the system has already begun and that the first shipment of equipment to the UAE is scheduled to take place in January 2013. A second shipment will follow in 2015. Installation of the systems is not included in the contract with Energy Solutions as this will be performed by the plant builders. The liquid waste systems will be commissioned once the plant has entered operation. The contract is worth in excess of $5 million, the spokesman said.

In a $20 billion deal announced in December 2009, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) selected a Korean consortium led by Korea Electric Power Company (Kepco) to build four APR-1400 reactor at Braka, 52 kilometres from Ruwais, scheduled to come online around 2017 or 2018. Further reactors could be ordered as electricity demand grows from some 16 GWe currently to an expected 40 GWe by 2020.

Enec submitted its construction licence application for Braka units 1 and 2 in December 2010. It plans to pour the first concrete for unit 1 in late 2012, with that for unit 2 following a year later.

The reference plant for the Braka units is Shin Kori 3 and 4, nearing completion in the south east of South Korea. Enec said its reactors will be "essentially the same" as those units "but supplemented with changes required to adapt to the UAE climatic conditions" and any specific requirements of the UAE nuclear regulator." These differences relate to a 50 Hertz output instead of 60 Hertz as well as higher temperatures and the possibility of sand storms.

Energy Solutions developed the liquid waste management systems for Shin Kori 3 and 4, as well as several other South Korean nuclear power reactors. The system destined for the UAE plant will be similar to those at Shin Kori. The company has also recently been awarded contracts to supply systems for the Yangjiang and Haiyang plants in China.